The present invention relates to fishing and boating equipment and more particularly to a downrigger device for maintaining the depth of a lure or bait attached to a fishing line during trolling operations.
In sport or commercial trolling fishing operations, the bait or lure is maintained at a desired depth. The bait or lure is positioned by an outrigger or downrigger system. Typically, such a system would include an arm which extends from the boat and supports a downrigger line pulley. A reel mounted adjacent the arm has a downrigger line which extends along the arm and over the pulley. A weight is attached to the end of the downrigger line. The fishing line is attached to the downrigger line by a suitable line release device. The downrigger weight is lowered to the desired depth thereby carrying the fishing line downwardly and the lure or bait trails from the downrigger line in a generally horizontal fashion. When the line or bait is struck by a fish, the fishing line is released from the downrigger line.
Examples of various rigger systems may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,193,964 entitled OUTRIGGER FISHING LINE GUIDE and issued on July 13, 1965 to Hurst; U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,331 entitled DOWNRIGGER and issued on Mar. 6, 1973 to Harsch; U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,960 entitled WEIGHT ARRESTER and issued on Dec. 12, 1978 to Marek; U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,002 entitled DOWNRIGGER SYSTEM and issued on Feb. 3, 1981 to McNellis; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,774 entitled FISHING SYSTEM and issued on June 21, 1983 to Thoemke. An example of the fishing line release may be found in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,091 entitled DOWNRIGGER LINE RELEASE and issued on Nov. 6, 1979 to Emory, Jr.
When using such systems, it is desirable to position the downrigger line and the fishing line at a sufficient distance from the boat to prevent interference with the boat hull and entanglement with the boat propeller. When the system employs an elongated arm to position the fishing line away from the boat, difficulties are experienced with attaching the fishing line to the downrigger line release, retrieving the weighted end of the downrigger line and/or stowing elements of the system. Unless provision is made for moving the weighted end of the downrigger line towards the boat, the operator will have to reach outwardly over the side or stern of the boat.
Various proposals have been made for retrieving the weighted end of the downrigger line or cable. In some systems, the downrigger system swivels or pivots so that the free end of the arm can be moved towards the boat. In other systems, the arm is retractable back towards the boat. Also, as disclosed in the aforementioned McNellis patent, it has been proposed to use a carriage assembly and a drive member secured to the downrigger cable which engages the carriage and moves the free end of the cable inwardly towards the boat when the cable is retrieved.